Traditional Chinese Games

Description

Variety of Chinese playground games

Resources

Instructions

HAWK AND CHICKS
How to play:
One child is chosen to be the Hawk, and another the Hen. All the other children are Chicks, and line up behind the Hen, holding onto the clothes of the child in front of them.
The Hawk and the Hen face each other, and the Hawk now tries to catch the Chicks. The Hen protects her Chicks, holding out her hands and moving from side to side (with her Chicks swaying in a line behind her).
Any Chicks which are caught move over to stand behind the Hawk, and the line of Chicks closes up

CAT CATCHING MICE
How to play:
One child is chosen to be the Cat (the chaser) and one child is chosen to become the Mouse. All the other children form a circle, holding hands, with the Mouse inside and the Cat outside.
The children in the circle move around while calling out the following rhyme:
When the rhyme stops, the children stop moving and the Cat starts to chase the Mouse, weaving in and out of the ring of children to do so. However, the Cat MUST follow the mouse's path. When he catches the Mouse he can enjoy pretending to "eat" him, and then two more children take a turn.

CHINESE CATCH
How to play:
Children stand around in a circle with a ball as appropriate for the age group (such as a basketball).
The ball is thrown quickly around and across the circle. When a child catched the ball, the children on either side must raise one arm - the arm nearest the child with the ball - and hold it in the air until the ball is passed on to another child.
If a child fails to catch the ball, or fails to raise the correct arm when their neighbour catches the ball, or is too slow to pass the ball along, they drop out. When there are only 5 children left in the circle, they are all declared winners, and the game starts again.

CATCH THE DRAGONS TAIL
How to play:
The children all form a line with their hands on the shoulders of the child in front. The first in line is the dragon's head, the last in line is the dragon's tail.
The dragon's head then tries to catch the tail by manoeuvring the line around so that he can tag the last player. All the players in the middle do their best to hinder the dragon's head. Don't let the line break!
When the head catches the tail, the tail player takes the front position and becomes the new dragon's head. All the other players move back one position.

HOPPING CHICKEN.
How to play:
One player from each team starts, hopping over the sticks without touching any of them. If a stick is touched, the player is disqualified.
When the player has hopped over all the sticks he stops, still on one foot, and bends down to pick up the last stick. He then hops back over the remaining sticks.
Reaching the beginning again, he drops the stick and sets off again to hop over the nine remaining sticks, pick up the last one, and return.
Play continues until all of the sticks have been picked up.
Remember, a player is disqualified if he puts both feet on the ground at any point during his turn, or if he touches a stick with his foot.